Seedlings await their turn in the organic garden at Bethesda Home for Boys. (Carl Elmore/Savannah Morning News)

At Bethesda Home for Boys, the nurturing of young men has led to the nurturing of organic vegetables.

Standing along a row of red ripe bell peppers, John Wright, 17, and Isaac Ceaser, 15, got to work harvesting in the hot sun Tuesday.

"You pick from this side and I'll pick from that," John told Isaac. They snipped off peppers for use in Bethesda's cafeteria, dropping them in blue buckets.

This 4-acre organic garden has evolved quickly since its start last year as a half-acre plot. Boys work in the garden for 90 minutes a day, pulling weeds, making compost, or cultivating the soil as part of their required work experience. They eat the fruits of their labor in the cafeteria. And they sell it at a popular produce stand off busy Whitefield Avenue.

Soon they'll also be propagating organic seedlings in a new 1,400-square-foot greenhouse.

The greenhouse, which is being dedicated at a noon ceremony today, is a gift from the Trustees' Garden Club.

The club's history with Bethesda dates back to 1932 when it began planting more than 1,000 trees and shrubs on Bethesda's 600-acre campus.

Over the next 25 years, the club began a plant nursery and helped with the design of the outdoor amphitheater and the landscaping surrounding Bethesda's iconic arch.

"I'm so excited about Bethesda because it fits perfectly with our mission," said Ruth Goldsmith, president of the Tustees' Garden Club. "With the current focus on locally produced agriculture and knowing where your food comes from it's perfect. And for the boys, it's not only a skill they can take with them but they're learning to enjoy healthy, high-quality food. It's just a good fit all around."

Nine Bethesda students, including John and Isaac plus seven of their football teammates, raked the earth around the greenhouse Tuesday, added a limestone gravel walkway and set up tents for today's dedication.

The new $56,000 greenhouse, complete with an irrigation system plus heating and cooling, is just what Bethesda needed to ramp up its organic gardening program, said Reid Archer, the young farmer who runs the program with his wife, Caroline. The couple, who interned at nearby Heritage Organic Farm, lives on campus and wrestled with starting seedlings in their house their first year at the school.

"With a small organic farm you depend a lot on seedlings," he said. "We have intensive planting dates. We're always growing stuff. It allows us more profit on a small space."

"This was a huge gift to us."

In addition to fruits and vegetables sold weekly at Bethesda's farmer's market, which opens again the first Tuesday in October, the greenhouse will also enable Bethesda to offer hard-to-find seedlings.

"As far as I know this is Savannah's only source for organic seedlings," Goldsmith said. "Savannahians can now purchase organic foods that they can be confident are safe, with no pesticides or toxic chemicals. You know where these products came from."

More on Bethesda's gardenFor more on Bethesda's Organic Gardening program, go to vimeo.com/14682339.